In the third quarter of 2007, revenues for IBO’s Laboratory Instrument Sales Index grew an impressive 13.7% to $4,218 million, identical to the second quarter’s revenue growth. Operating profit grew 21.8% to $693 million, and operating margin climbed 110 basis points to 16.4% of sales. Strong organic growth, acquisitions and favorable currency effects continued to […]

It was another year of largely bolt-on acquisitions for major analytical instrument companies. The only pure-play instrumentation deal worth more than $1 billion was Madison Dearborn’s acquisition of VWR International (see IBO 5/15/07). However, acquisitions for companies in which laboratory instruments or associated products are one segment of the company’s many businesses yielded two deals […]

Fluid Imaging Technologies’ FlowCAM (flow cytometer and microscope) is a unique product with considerable potential. The company, located in Yarmouth, Maine, grew out of founder Chris Sieracki’s work at Bigelow Laboratories for Oceanographic Sciences. The FlowCAM was first developed in 1996 and the company was started in 1999. For oceanographers, the FlowCAM offers a number […]

The metabolome is the full set of metabolites—the chemical fingerprints left behind by cellular processes—in an organism. The pharmaceutical industry is particularly interested in the potential of metabolomics research, because metabolites can serve as biomarkers for disease states and drug efficacy, and they can reveal toxicity during the drug discovery process. Metabolomics offers instrument manufacturers […]

This year’s Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC), which was held at the San Diego Convention Center from October 13 through October 17, was unquestionably the largest show in the event’s 80-year history. The event set all-time records in terms of attendance (19,929), exhibitors (1,017) and floor space (268,405 square feet); all of […]

Tightness in the credit markets sparked by the US subprime mortgage crisis, rising oil prices and the falling US dollar have increased fears of economic instability in recent months. Higher than normal levels of uncertainty are evident in recent surveys of major corporations. However, such uncertainty has not dampened all enthusiasm. The Business Roundtable’s third […]

The 2007 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard shows aggregate R&D spending by 2,000 of the world’s top companies rose 10% in fiscal 2006 to €371.6 billion ($464.5 billion). R&D expenditures by the 1,000 non-EU companies surveyed rose 11.1% to €250.5 billion ($313.1 billion), compared to 7.7% in 2005. R&D spending for the 1,000 EU companies […]

Held for the second consecutive year in the heart of US oil country, this year’s ISA exposition in Houston, Texas, met many people’s lowered expectations for the event. Many process analytical instrument vendors opted for smaller booths and some elected to pass up the show altogether. Although attendance and number of exhibitors declined 4% and […]